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Clicker Ticker

June 27, 1999

BASEBALL: Phillies at Cubs

1:20 p.m., WGN-Ch. 9

Cubs fans who recall Mike Schmidt's semiannual bombardment of Wrigley Field might want to keep their eyes closed. Scott Rolen, the Phillies' terrific young third baseman, is drawing comparisons to Schmidt.

Soccer: U.S. vs. North Korea

6 p.m., ESPN2

The Mia Hamm show continues, as it moves to Foxboro, Mass. Once again, this is a sporting event that unites two countries that don't have diplomatic relations. Sports can transcend politics sometimes.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL

Mark Upshaw, a 38-year-old businessman and father of two in the Atlanta suburb of Conyers, Ga., was an All-Atlantic 10 basketball guard at Rhode Island 17 years ago. Imagine his surprise when a recruiting letter arrived at his Columbus, Ga., high school last week from Stanford University. And imagine a a San Francisco postmark dated May 21, 1978. David McQuinn, consumer affairs clerk for the U.S. Postal Service in Columbus, said the letter might have been stuck for 21 years in a pouch used to store mail.

"It appears it stayed in San Francisco," he said. "Probably no human ever looked at it."

Upshaw originally signed with Georgia out of high school, but changed his mind and enrolled at Rhode Island. Would it have made a difference if the mail had been more timely and Stanford was in the mix?

"You never know," he said. "Probably not. I think going to Rhode Island was the right decision for me.

"Maybe I need to send it in now, and Stanford will give me a scholarship."

DEAD MAN WATCHING

Speaking of mail, Ed Rush of Ypsilanti, Mich., recently received a letter from the University of Michigan athletic ticket office informing him he was dead. He's not, and neither are 16 other people listed as deceased on a list the ticket office was going by when it informed the families of 275 football season ticket-holders that their tickets were being canceled. A check of Social Security records revealed that the person to whom the tickets had been issued was dead, and the university's longstanding policy is that only surviving spouses can inherit football tickets, for which there is unprecedented demand.